Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has been called out by fans and competitors several times for not being the safest driver. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver does have a history of wrecking and it even earned him the infamous nickname, Wrecky Spinhouse Jr.
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However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t an accomplished race car driver. Unfortunately, due to his infamous reputation, not a lot of people take those accomplishments seriously. Despite that some fans on social media have come out in support of the veteran.
Stenhouse is a master of superspeedway racing considering all of his four Cup Series wins have come at Daytona and Talladega. He won the recent Cup Series race at ‘Dega after surviving several potential wrecks. He is also a Daytona 500 winner and a two-time Xfinity Series champion.
What makes his Cup Series race wins so impressive is that he has achieved those in a car that is not nearly as competitive as the usual suspects competing for race wins.
Can we agree that @StenhouseJr is a good driver? 2X Xfinity Champion; Cup Series Rookie of the Year; Daytona 500 Winner; 4 Cup Wins in subpar equipment. Not a GOAT but well above average. (via u/TrackhouseFanClub) https://t.co/01t17Rypxl #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/zaCBEa8con
— r/NASCAR on Reddit (@NASCARonReddit) October 7, 2024
A bad car can make a driver fall from his form no matter how good they might have been in the past. The biggest example of that is Kyle Busch. Regardless of the Gen-6 or the Next-Gen era, Stenhouse has always run well at superspeedways. He might not be one of the greats but he is a man worthy of respect for his achievements in the sport.
This year, he won once and finished inside the top 10 on five other occasions. It’s certainly a good record for a driver in a less competitive car. There might be a lot of criticism about how he drives but fans are starting to realize just how good a driver Stenhouse is.
Fans back Stenhouse’s career post-Talladega win
The veteran race car driver never had the best luck with the equipment he had. Even when he was at Roush Fenway Racing, the team fell off and was not competing for wins regularly. “I’d like to see him in good equipment. He was at Roush when they were awful, now he’s at JTG in subpar cars,” one user commented.
“Stenhouse is a driver marred by years of bad equipment and in the 2 years in 2017 and 2023 where his team made decent cars he was top 15 and was knocking top 20s like crazy, I wish Ricky had good equipment,” quipped another.
His run to the front of the pack at Talladega was masterful as he raced through the pack after his final pit stop and took advantage of the massive wreck that ensued. “Came out of the pits first build momentum up and weaved his way through right to the front. It was an outstanding run,” one user commented.
Another fan equated Austin Dillon to have a similar story to Stenhouse and that the stats prove neither one of them was a bad driver. “Same with Austin Dillon. The hate they both get is ridiculous. Stats back up solid careers,” they commented.
